February 23, 2015

Monday-Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, Jerome Berger reviewed and gave 3/5 dots to the Viet namese An Di An Di in the 20th and also smaller mentions of the aforementioned Le Mordant in the 10th and the Japanese dinette Ito Chan in the 9th.

Tuesday in Le Fooding, Yves Nespoulous reviewed the Viet namese An Di An Di in the 20th.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin, in his Hache Menu, celebrated the Chinese New Year by going to the previously mentioned Tricotin. Then he followed with his usual five reviews : giving 3/5 hearts to the Bistrot Augustin, 79 Rue Daguerre in the 14th, closed Sundays, 01.84.15.02.02, where for 19 E one has the daily special and 38 E the menu-carte with items such as filet de loup, pork with lentils and a cheesecake. Garnering 2 hearts were the Bistrot Bleriot, 9, quai Louis-Bleriot in the 16th, closed only for Sunday dinners, 01.42.88.42.42, with menus at 19 and 24 and a la carte 30-45 E for items such as an egg mayo, chili con carne and a baba au rhum ; as well as the Latino/tapas La Portena in the 18th. Getting one heart each were the tapas-bar Death by Burrito in the 11th and the upscale epicerie Myrthe in the 10th.

6.75 Juste Le Zinc, 25, rue de Turin in the 8th, (Metro: Clichy) 01.43.87.44.84, closed Sundays, has been open 15 days and already is packed. I went on a self-assigned search for a coq au vin that would reach the heights that Julia Child's or that at the old Chez René (25 years ago) achieved. "Desolé, Monsieur, c'est vendredi" which means - fish fish fish. Heart broken, we order the next best.

I look at carte and see ours-inade (bear's claw in mud, huh? but I've been searching all over for such ever since I read the recipe in Escoffier.) My friend, the French scholar from Berkeley, says as gently as he can to me "John, I think it's oursin soup as in sea-urchin." Ah. And it was, and it was terrific. My carpaccio of daurade was good product but ruined by too many salt crystals. OK, onward.

Then he ordered (at my insistence) the charlotte of milk-fed lamb which came out looking like a poached pear, but no, wait, those were pimento pieces that had been in the mold - lovely looking and lovely tasting. And I had a special of the days - a fricassee of duck hearts on a lovely, no, I take that back, fantastic, puree. Top-top, product and cooking.

We finished by splitting a Baba au rhum, with rum a volonté; quite nice, indeed.

With a fine bottle of Chiroubles, no bottled water, good bread, one OK coffee and over-the-top candied ginger slices, the bill comes to 86.50 E.

February 12, 2015

72.5 Le Mordant, 61, rue de Chabrol in the 10th, 09.83.40.60.04, closed weekends, Metro: Poissonniere. Mordant means cutting or caustic and I'm sure it was chosen to imply at the "cutting-edge," and that it is. Open a couple of weeks, the exterior is indistinguishable from the other buildings on the street - I walked right by it, as did my dining partner, the RFC, star of stage, screen & radio, both of us finally figuring out that the menus in the doorway meant that this was the place. I came in a few minutes before he (schlepping in from the banks of the Marne) and was awed by the stone walls, wood and open kitchen with 50% women chefs (the chief chef, one Lara Six, self-taught apparently, we later learned.)

He entered and knew practically every customer in the place, schmoozing each up as he threaded his way to our table (I thought: "boy if all these food guys are here, we're in for a treat.") We pondered the carte and 20 E 2-course and 24 E 3-course "menus" and after chatting up our host, Lucas Blanchy, who has been around the wine world a lot, including Japan & Thailand and of all places Texas, we settled first on the carpaccio of St Jacques and tataki of beef (French not Japanese) with avocado & lemon zest), the latter of which is about the best beef of the Year.

As we always do, we debated what to eat so both of us could share and chatted up M. Blanchy who raved about the langue de chat (really beef not cat's tongue or cookies or mache, as some sources would have you believe) with eggplant and terrific fries (here in Paris!) Yes! I had his other specialty, the pork ribs facon "Daddy Roger" with a lovely puree, really smashed potatoes. The ribs had a peppery after-taste kick to them that maybe wasn't Tyler, Texas, but was a pretty good approximation.

With all this we sampled both a white Bordeaux and red Pinot Noir as well as sampling M. Blanchy's Genepi and Gin Monkey 47 Batch - both offered.

So the bill, with no dessert, 1 bottle of wine, no bottled water, fine bread and one coffee came to 90.50 E a couple. dB level = 87.8.

February 11, 2015

6.75 Bouillon, 47, rue de Rochechouart in the 9th, 09.51.18.66.59, closed Sundays and Mondays, Metro: ah #85 bus best, is described as in Gault-Millau thusly: "Dans ce quartier ou les bonnes addresses se succedent tous les 50 m," and it's true - the area is hopping. I had to make a rez 3 weeks ago and they turned away about 8 walk-ins. And for the second day in a row the chef was a Jean-Francois Piege graduate- Yesterday Nicolas Tessier "ex-second de..." at Les Comptoirs du Medoc and- Today Marc Favier "discret second de..." at Bouillon.Is Piege shedding good chefs like a shaggy dog?

The tables are finished on one edge and raw on the other, 80% of the chairs are unsittable-on/in for anyone with a tender back and the toilet seat flips down unexpectedly - but other than that and the lack of sound-dampening (81.7 dB) - it was lovely.

My Chinese-agitator pal, a denizen of this feng-shui-blessed area and I immediately settled on the same superbly sourced and prepared things for this chilly day:- a bouillon of mushrooms ("true Paris mushrooms," mind you), celery, cilantro, duck foie gras and smoked vinegar,- a blanquette of veal with lotsa veggies, rice pilaf and a sauce my friend adored,- an apple tart. We were very happy campers, indeed.

Our bill, with a bottle of great tasting although pallid looking wine, no bottled water, fabulous bread as a demi-baguette and 2 coffees, was 86 E for two of us.